


Speak With Humans

by Tel



Category: Honor Harrington Series - David Weber, Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossover, Gen, POV Nonhuman
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-03
Updated: 2010-09-03
Packaged: 2017-10-11 10:56:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/111664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tel/pseuds/Tel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the immediate aftermath of Short Victorious Vor, Nimitz and Honor have a long-overdue chat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Speak With Humans

This wasn't how it should have happened.

Dances on Clouds seemed to ignore him, working on a report, but his sense of her was veiled in bitter anger. She was blocking him out as much as she could, untrusting, betrayed. Both of his bonds, the source of all his strength, were diminished, and he was diminished with them. Though he doubted even now that she meant to cause him pain, her own pain blinded her.

There was nothing where his other part was, his other self. The absence of Sings a New Song had become so familiar that he could almost force himself to believe this was like any other time apart. They'd known this was their fate even when she was bonded to Hunter of Stars. Another mated pair might separate for a day, a week, but they had spent a season apart and learned to endure. But nineteen turnings? Unimaginable. It was nearly half a lifespan, more than either of them had lived thus far.

His own thoughts coiling unhappily in his mind, he failed to realize Dances on Clouds had stopped until her gaze raked him like a death fang's claws.

"You knew," she said softly.

A short nod.

"I should have seen it." Her eyes closed. "I should have seen it. They made me stay so busy playing diplomat that I forgot to be an officer."

Laughs Brightly flicked an ear. He alone knew how much the years of nearly constant war had taken out of his human, how much being a warrior cost her. Her kittens and his fostered by others, defended only by her bravery. She could never go out without a war-band, and some among her own people despised her for reasons he had never really understood. He'd been reminded of better times on the world controlled by Hides Badly's mother and her foster kitten.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked softly, and he flowed up into her lap. Neither of them could stay angry at each other now, not with both raw and bleeding inside.

It was times like this that he wished he could communicate better with Dances on Clouds. Hides Badly's plan for that hadn't fully worked, mostly because of his own failings. Like most humans, he tended to interpret attempts to communicate with him as telling him what he wanted to hear as opposed to what his bondmate was actually trying to say. Mountain Roaring, who had taught them her hunting signs, had been a far better teacher.

The speech of his own people had been taken away from him, and in the councils of his kind he had been forced to remain silent. Not that he could speak against Sings a New Song, his other self, the brightest memory singer of a generation. Not that speaking against her would have helped - he loved her, but she had never paid much heed to the counsel of her elders.

Still, he had one way that might work. Hides Badly had suggested it, once the extent of his injuries became clear. The small human had pointed out that since he could still send images that were imagined and not remembered to Dances on Clouds, he could surely send them to Sings a New Song too, and had tried to demonstrate how that was a perfectly reasonable (if not ideal) way to communicate by using flat pieces of white stuff. It was not ideal. But Laughs Brightly had practiced very hard.

He looked up at her and concentrated, forming an image in her mind as best he could. A closed, chill room on Deep Digging World. Hides Badly and Sings a New Song were there, greeting an elder of the People and his tall, dark bondmate. He showed Dances on Clouds his mate's fear, and Hides Badly's fear...

...and an image of the nest-place of Death Fang's Bane Clan, on their homeworld, and the vast picketwood nearby. A creeping fire menaced the wood. People sat on the ground, and Sings a New Song argued with them. At last his mate leaped to a branch as the fire drew closer, running to Laughs Brightly, running with him. But the fire followed, and their path divided. and Sings a New Song ran up, and through the skies, leaping to a different picketwood far away, where the fire could not go.

Dances on Clouds frowned, trying to decipher all that. Mentally flicking his ears, Laughs Brightly sent an image of _bad humans_ walking through the fire.

"Samantha's afraid of Haven? ...no. Nearly right?"

He sent another image - Sings a New Song running down the picketwood path, and more People following her. She leaped to another strange place, and this time People jumped after her and started to build a nest. But Sings a New Song kept leaping, to more and more worlds, with more and more People following.

"Samantha wants treecats to make homes on other planets." Dances on Clouds blinked. "I... that's... she's been listening to Miles, hasn't she."

A tail flick. Hides Badly had always had his own plans, but it wasn't like they were anywhere near as important in the grand scheme of things as he thought they were.

She picked him up and put him back down on the floor, staring at him in sudden thoughtfulness. "Stinker. What's really happening?"

He sat very still a moment, fidgeting a little with his tail. He wasn't allowed to answer that question. The weight of the consensus of the memory singers weighed on him - and what was he? Merely a male.

"Miles talked about the Clans as One Clan, that they'd decided to blockade us too. Who decided this? Why?" Her stare intensified. "I need to be able to trust you, Nimitz. Please. No more games."

He closed his eyes and pictured Sings a New Song pregnant in the woods, speaking to the memory singers. Images of People all around the cities of the High Clan. Then the singers took their turn, showing images of the cities without People in them.

"My Sphinx doesn't agree. Why?"

Laughs Brightly shifted uncomfortably. Because that was the way it was. Because that was the way the elders wanted it, and however good his mate's arguments might have been, they had been rejected because of the way she had leaped ahead in open defiance. Consensus was not very important to incessantly-arguing humans, but to his people it was everything.

Sings a New Song had argued strenuously that the foreign clans were not bound by the dictate of Sings Truly and were free to make their own consensus. The memory singers had firmly pointed out that even if the foreign clans were not bound, Sings a New Song very much was, and in acting independently she had put herself above all the wisdom of her elders. They were not amused, and her arguments gained no traction.

Above all, they were horrified that she had chosen a new human not belonging to the High Clan, and that her actions had led to the one they called Stranger bonding with one of the enemies of the High Clan. The singers had foreseen People warring against each other in human battles, driven by their bonds to do terrible things and sit by while terrible things were done. Laughs Brightly had not understood that argument at the time, and neither had Sings a New Song. He understood it now, bitterly.

He sent an image of glaring representatives of the human clans of her other world.

"They don't like Grayson?" She sounded baffled.

He added extra arms and tails to the humans and she nearly laughed in sudden realization. "They're reactionary hicks. But his Sphinx is different. Why?"

A picture of the People listening in the trees and Sings a New Song on the ground. A true image, not wavering and illusory. She'd been there.

"I thought it was just the treecats from that one clan who wanted to visit humans... are you saying it was a coordinated decision? They all decided to join Samantha's faction?"

Laughs Brightly nodded. There were far fewer of the People on the other world, but there were as many of the sort of People who sought out humans as might be expected. As the news spread, People from several clans had gone looking at once. 

"So there is a global communications network. You people are talking to each other, and sharing notes. So when you go back to talk to your clan... they talk to other clans?"

He nodded again, pleased as ever that he had a _clever_ human.

"And you have one public policy." She pursed her lips. "So _is_ there a treecat Empress? I always thought that was some crazy idea of Miles's."

He shared his amusement with her but didn't answer.

"But now there's two treecat worlds, and they don't agree with each other..." she continued. "And the other Sphinx wants to work more closely with humans, and our Sphinx doesn't... Did those other treecats agree to go along with closing the wormhole so that our treecats could keep their secrets?"

Silent affirmation.

"I still don't understand why you don't want to talk to us."

Cheekily, he sent a picture of cluster stalk at her. She sighed.

"I suppose it works for you. You look cute and I give you celery."

Looking cute, he nodded enthusiastically. "Oh, all right..." she muttered, getting to her feet.  "While I can't say I agree,  I think I understand where you're coming from. But the Queen needs to know this. Not today, maybe. But one day we all have to find a way to be honest with each other."

His reply was smooth ambivalence. Leaf Catcher would handle Soul of Steel, as always.

She stopped at the door and looked back. "Is Miles really that afraid of all of us? Does he really have so little faith in me?"

It was truth. He tried to show it to her... his terror and determination and bitter resignation, his loyalty and ambition, his anger and his hope. And his love, despite everything, because humans were complicated like that. Complicated and treacherous and sometimes very, very stupid.


End file.
